I attended Kairos EU Summit Venice last year and after the event, I decided to join a trip around Italy with some of the participants, totally improvised. What I never thought was that I would end up doing a solidarity rally in Morocco with these people.
At a simple dinner where we were talking about adventures and trips, I told them that I wanted to do Uniraid, a rally where we took solidarity material to schools and that’s where it all started.
What does it consist of?
Uniraid is a solidarity rally to take 40 kilos of solidarity material to schools in remote areas. In addition to competing with a car that is over 20 years old.
It starts in Tangier. Then you cross Morocco inland, across the Atlas and then continue south, towards the dunes of Erg Chebbi.s until you reach Marrakech and then return to Tangier.
Team : Raise4kids
The team was 4 entrepreneurs Alx , Niels , Julan and me. We contacted the schools to see which were the most difficult materials to get.
Alx Niels Aleix Julan 
Slow Down
We got Signify to donate +10,000 LED lights to the schools!
Anecdote:
We stop to put gas in the cars, the refueler makes a mistake and puts a liter of diesel in the car and then fills it up with gas. He did this without telling us and when he started the car, the car didn’t work.
Alx went into action and started talking to the mechanic to admit his mistake and call a mechanic, he didn’t want to accept it but Alx is the bad cop in this story.
In the end they accept the mistake and call a mechanic, the situation is very tense. Julan comes up with a great idea and gives candy to the mechanics as they had to fix the car and better have them with us.
The situation was relaxed, then they offered us tea. Niels took out his guitar and we started singing.
What surprised me most was how we turned an unpleasant situation into a good moment. We had more incidents but we still had this attitude of enjoying the trip and not letting ourselves get bitter
Learnings:
- Cooperation: Several moments we help each other with either car repairs or unblocking. When you are attacked or in a complicated stage, it is best to team up and support each other.
- Ask for feedback: Going with this group of entrepreneurs was very transparent and they gave you feedback on details that you might not realize, but taking care of the sensitivities.
- Honest conversations: There were uncomfortable moments where we had small conflicts, at the end of the day we would comment on them and see what had happened, it is not who is to blame but how can we avoid that conflict or problem that we have had before, what has happened? How can we avoid it or what to do in case it happens again?
- Surround yourself with exceptional people : When you go with this type of person, in this case we are all entrepreneurs, we take the initiative when there is an incident and we do risky things.
From each one I have learned something concrete from :
- Julan : How to build a community and relate better to people
- Niels : Take the initiative to talk if something bothers you
- Alx: How to undertake in a slower and safer way.
The best thing is that all this came out because one day I was having dinner with some people I hardly knew and I told them to do a rally. Undoubtedly the greatest learning was not to be afraid to invite people to do things I want, you do not lose anything by inviting them has been my greatest learning. If you want to do something, say so.
Thank you very much to all the sponsors and people who have supported us in this adventure!
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